1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to matching, naming, and displaying medical images based upon user-defined rules.
2. Description of the Related Art
Medical imaging is increasingly moving into the digital realm. This includes imaging techniques that were traditionally analog, such as mammography, x-ray imaging, angiography, endoscopy, and pathology, where information can now be acquired directly using digital sensors, or by digitizing information that was acquired in analog form. In addition, many imaging modalities are inherently digital, such as MRI, CT, nuclear medicine, and ultrasound. Increasingly these digital images are viewed, manipulated, and interpreted using computers and related computer equipment. When medical images are created, they are typically provided an identifier, label, or name. This name can be either automatically generated or provided by a technician. One problem with organizing medical images from different sources is that these identifiers do not necessarily provide a good description that is understandable to a subsequent viewer of the image. Furthermore, as the number of images increase, there is a need for improved methods of matching related medical images together for subsequent viewing and analysis.